EDITORIAL - Heritage conservation

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts deserves support in its push for a prize for the rice terraces in Barangay Maligcong in Bontoc, Mountain Province. The Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes, granted by the UNESCO office in Greece, highlights the importance of integrated conservation and sustainable management of cultural landscapes.

Any success in safeguarding and managing the Maligcong rice terraces should be shared with the rest of the Cordillera communities blessed with the network of stone or mud walls and pond fields along the slopes, where rice has been grown using traditional methods “virtually unchanged” for the past 2,000 years, as noted by UNESCO.

In 1995, the Rice Terraces of the Cordilleras, a national treasure and top tourist destination, were inscribed in the List of World Heritage Sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The designation should have helped preserve and manage the terraced paddies. Instead in 2001, UNESCO inscribed the rice terraces in the list of World Heritage in Danger.

“For 2,000 years, the high rice fields of the Ifugao have followed the contours of the mountains,” UNESCO stated in its description of the world heritage. “The fruit of knowledge handed down from one generation to the next, and the expression of sacred traditions and a delicate social balance, they have helped to create a landscape of great beauty that expresses the harmony between humankind and the environment.”

Maligcong is not part of the five UNESCO-inscribed Ifugao rice terrace clusters, which are in Kiangan, Hungduan, Mayoyao, Bangaan and Batad. UNESCO noted that these clusters employed traditional terraced farming methods that involve soil conservation and herb-based natural pest control, and incorporate lunar cycles and religious rituals.

This Cordillera heritage, unfortunately, is losing its custodians as younger generations find terraced rice farming too back-breaking for the modest returns. In the past decades, the Ifugao Rice Terraces have suffered from neglect and periodic infestations of giant earthworms that have eroded the walls.

The rice terraces can be saved if they can produce viable livelihoods. Sustainable tourism can be promoted along with traditional economic activities such as weaving and wood carving. The mountain rice produced in the paddies can be marketed at higher prices as top-grade artisanal varieties.

Beyond laudable efforts to obtain international recognition for heritage conservation and sustainable management, the government and stakeholders must work together to protect much of the rice terraces from neglect and collapse.